I'm considering purchasing a laptop for my business, and have never installed a *nix operating system on a laptop.

My main concern being from Brisbane Australia is heat and humidity. Mainly due to the fact I have no air-conditioning. Last thing I need is an operating system that cannot perform in hot conditions.

So what experiences or advice can you give me regarding this issue?

Regards,
Jono.

Plenty of support in Brissie - lots of (very) experienced users here on LQ ....

I've had issues with things like gentoo and lots of compiling, but Ubuntu will be o.k. - I still like to use a laptop cooler, and I have to clean the vents on the back every 6 months or so due to (my) dusty environment.
Be careful if buying the (absolute) "latest-and-greatest" - I had an issue for a while that the fans wouldn't cut in and out, but ran flat-out all the time, draining the battery. Once the chipset support came through, things worked as expected. Might have been Ubuntu, maybe fedora, can't remember specifically.

Air-con is for sissies! Brissy isnt that hot. Apart from early august to late may....

I'm not really a laptop expert, all the advice I can give you is to avoid 'switchable graphics' or 'optimus', and try to avoid some of the more dodgy brands. I'd probably get a lenovo, they always impress me.

Really nice list of lpatops with excelent linux support here-

http://www.linuxnow.com.au/nsintro.html

Its even a .au site. "All prices include GST. Delivery available to most locations in Australia".

I've never bought from them, as I build my own desktops and dont really use laptops. If the prices aren't silly, I'd consider buying from them, its a nice list and supporting companies that support linux is a good idea IMO.

john,
cooling problems on a laptop are likely to be to do with the laptop, primarily. If an O/S needs 15GB for its system files, do you think if will generate less heat from a cpu than one that only needs 3GB, or so, for its system files and programs, the later being a major GNU/Linux offering?

Fred.